Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Today we got our official results with overall time and specific times for each leg.

Overall Time: 1:15:56

Overall Rank: 391/598

Swim: 7:59

Rank: 206

Bike: 36:56

Rank: 370

Run: 31:00

Rank: 452

Overall I am really happy with my times, especially since my main goal was to FINISH!

My Thoughts on Swimming: Well I can't believe I'm saying this but apparently swimming was my strength. This is pretty amazing considering I was most worried about this from the beginning and I don't have any kind of history of being good at swimming. I was on a really wimpy swim team when I was younger and I don't think I came in anything other than last. Not that a rank of 206 is winning haha, but the fact that it is my strength at all is impressive to me. Now I don't feel too bad about those years that I taught swimming, maybe I really did know what I was talking about (Kelly starts to get cocky).

My Thoughts on Biking: Biking was my favorite part of this race. I love my bike and I saw this as sort of my rest time, time to drink water etc. I have had a bit of a love/hate relationship with biking throughout this training, but during the race I loved biking. I also was thanking my giant hill that I have to climb on my way home every day because those hills during the race didn't seem so bad :) I think I could've gone faster in the biking section (perhaps I shouldn't view it as rest time anymore?), so that can be a goal for next time. One of my biggest problems with biking is the fact that I knew I had to run after, so I didn't want to push it TOO bad. Hopefully when I am better trained for the running section I'll be less nervous to push it on biking.

My Thoughts on Running: Obviously running was my weakness, but considering that I had not trained for this part at ALL I'm not too sad about 31 minutes. That's only a little over 2 minutes longer than my 5k when I WAS trained AND I had not biked and swam right before. Although I'll love to improve on my time in a future triathlon, more importantly I'd like to improve on how I feel during the running part because on Sunday I was really dying. I'll like to HAPPILY make it through a running section next time. That might be asking a lot, but a girl can hope.

It would be fun to improve my overall rank too since 391 is not that impressive, especially to my little kiddos at work who asked me if I "won" the race haha. I didn't know how to explain to them that for me the accomplishment was in making it across the finish line haha. It's fun to compete but the real success is in knowing that I can do something I didn't know if I could do before. Plus, I was at the doctor today for a physical and I had never met this doctor before. When we were discussing how I eat, how often I work out etc she said that I look like someone who loves to work out. I'll take that as a compliment :) I don't know if 5 am Kelly would agree with that statement but I'll take what I can get.

I'd love to write more but unfortunately I have to go meet with a wedding videographer tonight. If you are not already planning a wedding now, but might think about it in the future- I highly recommend eloping! Planning a wedding is so much work and there is really not a lot about it that I actually enjoy. My second piece of advice is to space your wedding out far away from your friends. Being it other people's weddings is time consuming too- I am pretty sure I am on a first name basis with wedding paper divas an invitation company, who I actually recommend if you ignore my previous advice and decide to plan a wedding or bridal shower for someone. I hope everyone is having a great week.

Great job. It's funny that you mention that you were surprised about your good swimming results, because over my vacation I realized I am a GREAT swimmer!! I swam each day in the pool and I was loving it. Nick said I had a nice stroke, I was shocked!

Congrats about the triathlon! That is great. It is more than I could ever hope to do! And I completely 100% agree w/you on the eloping bit .. I am 11 days away from my wedding and the only thing enjoyable about it right now is knowing that this whole circus will be over soon! (aside from being married of course)

Kelly...you did so well! That's really exciting about the swimming thing, too. I am an awful swimmer (as in, I never do it, because I don't open my eyes and I still plug my nose), so I'll probably never to a tri, but it was great to read about your experience, so I can live vicariously through you! Good luck with the wedding stuff!